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What Happened to Thalia
This is a fanfiction book about Thalia Grace. It is a fandom book about the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus books by Rick Riordan View below. The book is unfinished, only written up to chapter 6. Enjoy! What Happened to Thalia By E.M Chase “I am Thalia,” the girl said. “Daughter of Zeus” Blurb Thalia is worried. If sacrificing herself for her friends and turning into a pine tree for six years wasn't enough, she now has to deal with the pressure of being the Daughter of Zeus, Princess of the Universe. But after finding out that her best friend has left her scares her. What if all of her friends leave her? She'd be a homeless demigod again, roaming the world, looking for a family to replace her broken one. Worst of all, she has questions. When? Where? How? Why? Her unstable mother? Her lost brother? And will she fit in with the huge family of demigods at Camp Half Blood? Underneath her battle cry is a dying fire in her eyes. One that is excited. Sad. Scared. Prologue “Almost… there,” Grover wheezed. “Camp Half-Blood is just up… and over that hill.” Luke gripped Annabeth’s hand tightly, and I held Ageis, my bronze shield. It’s a replica of my father’s, also called Aegis, except much smaller. The horrible face of Medusa gleamed in the bright moonlight. Artemis, goddess of the moon, is watching us, I knew. We raced up the rocky hill, patches of wet dark green grass growing all around. I glanced back. Three hellhounds, one in front and two in the back, with spiked collars attached to leashes held by a cyclops. But the worst monster there was a pitch black drakon, green eyes with glowing yellow pupils. Don’t confuse dragons and drakons. Dragons will breathe fire and have green scaly skin. They don’t do much damage. But drakons are centuries older and much deadlier. I have never fought one but didn’t want to tonight. The only thing I wanted to do tonight was get to this supposed camp. Grover had kicked off his fake feet and shoes and held them in his hand, like he does when he wants to move fast, clip-clopping along the rocks faster than I had ever seen him move before. Annabeth was obviously struggling to keep up with us. She looked back at the monsters for a second and tripped on a jagged piece of rock sticking up from the wet ground. She cried out in pain, so I knew that she had broken or sprained her ankle. Luke bent down to scoop her up and then kept running. The monsters were catching up, but I was convinced we would make it over and down the hill to the ‘magical barriers’. My legs throbbed. My throat burned. It didn’t help when the lead hellhound teleported in front of me. The stupid thing emerged from the shadow in front of me. I jumped back, startled. It momentarily collapsed at my feet, ready to pounce, and bounded onto my shield. I shook it off, then sent it to Tartarus the easy way with one quick strike from my sword. The other two hellhounds were catching up, the cyclops bounding, slowly for cyclops, behind them. I knew now they would catch up to me. One hellhound I could handle at medium-difficulty, but two attacking at the same time… well, that’s a different story. I ran up, and up the hill, faster and faster, to catch up with Annabeth, Grover and Luke. I was at the top of the hill. That was good news, I had the higher ground. But the hellhounds were getting closer and closer. I turned to run down the hill, but the hellhounds saw me turn and ran faster after me. I was at the top of the hill. If I ran, they would have an advantage in speed, but if I stayed and fought here, I would probably die. So I took the best chance, to stay and fight. Luke, Annabeth, Grover… they were counting on me. I took the best chance, turned on the top of the hill and raised my shield. I could tell that the monsters were, for a second, either shocked, scared or laughing in a monstrous sort of way. I stood on the hill. Then they charged. Annabeth looked back again and saw me. “THALIA!!!” “Keep going! I’ll hold them off for you! Run!” I fought the monsters. More and more appeared from every direction but the one they were running to. I fought them until I knelt down on one knee, and blacked out. Chapter 1 I was dead. It was obvious. I had blacked out with hundreds of monsters focused on me. But I had arrived in the clouds, seated next to my father, the almighty Zeus. He gave me a smile, or at least a facial expression that felt like he actually cared about me. I smiled back at him. I stayed in this trance for a few seconds, forgetting all of the times Luke and I cursed our Olympian parents, until he began to speak. “Thalia. I have kept you safe from the monsters, and away from most forms of danger. You may never wake up. Are you willing to accept this?” Sure, why not. Eternally in Olympus? I’d never been there before, but it looked pretty awesome… or at least from where I was sitting. The air smelled fresh and full, if you know what I mean. Well, I guess it would, sitting next to the god of sky and air. Minor gods roamed around on the streets, bowing to the major gods as they passed. I spotted a woman at the fountain outside of the golden gates that surrounded the throne room, growing ivy in the fountain and grass littered with flowers in her footsteps. Demeter, I realised. I saw another goddess wandering around in the streets, and even I could see from a distance, her eyes shone grey, like… I don’t know. She wore an ancient Greek helmet on her head, with a shield in one hand and a spear in the other. She looked towards me and gave me a smile, like she was happy that I was a daughter of Zeus, or maybe that Luke and I had supported Annabeth when she ran away. I returned the smile, then focused my attention back on my father. Zeus gazed in the same direction I was for a moment, but then turned back to me and looked confused for a second, as if remembering what I was thinking. Then he shook his head, as if living eternally in Olympus was not an option. “You can not stay here forever, only while I explain the situation to you.” I looked down at my lap, then looked up into my father’s eyes. “Well, what are my options?” “You can die, or you can live, frozen in time until your friends find a way to fix you.” “I think I’ll choose the option that doesn't involve dying.” Just like that, I fell into a deeper sleep. One that could only be woken up with magic. ----------------- I woke up. Gods of Olympus, how long was I gone? I was in the same position that I ‘died’ in. My legs came back into reality and I fell back, legs burning, leaning against a tall pine tree. There was a concrete path leading up to me and over the hill, and the way we had come onto the hill there was now a road. A thunderstorm raged, but somehow it was a clear night where I lay. Another tree was close, and a girl was on lookout on a small treehouse balcony. She was dressed in full Greek armour, and a familiar dagger was strapped to her arm. She looked around slowly, then noticed me. She staggered back a bit, but then jumped over the rail, and landed with a soft thump, then ran towards me in surprise. She knelt down at me, and looked to me like she wanted to hug me and cry, but was too shocked to say or do anything. She touched my head with a shaking hand, as if feeling my temperature, and I passed out. ---------------------- I woke up again to a cry of, “Percy, wait!”. A boy, who looked about eleven or twelve years old with black hair and an orange t-shirt, ran up the hill towards me. My eyes were only partially opened, but still my eyebrows flamed with pain. It hurt so much to just do anything. Breathing stung my throat, blinking pricked my eyes, I had no sense of smell, and my mouth tasted like blood. I looked down to cuts on my arms. Was my blood green? My vision was clearly not working the way it should. The cold night hit me like a flaming ice brick. Meaning that I was so hot that the heat was overwhelming my nerves. The boy reached the top of the hill, with… Grover? Yes, it was him. At least he was alive, meaning that I was not in Olympus for centuries. He had grown so much though… “It’s true” Grover was breathless from running up the hill. “I can’t believe…” No one else came up the hill. They were all staring at me, looking like they were waiting for an explanation. Hey, I was too. “She needs nectar and ambrosia” The boy muttered, and then turned to the others down the hill. “Come on! What’s wrong with you people? Let’s get her to the Big House.” Big House? Were those code words? Then I looked down the hill. That girl. Blonde hair, grey stormy eyes. And then I realised. The little girl I once rescued with Luke, she had grown up. Wait - Luke. Where was he? If she was here, wouldn’t he be too? The boy lifted me up so that I could sit up. Pain flared in my back, but it felt good. I rested my head on his shoulder. It still hurt to move. I coughed and took a shallow breath. Then I opened my eyes fully. He stared straight into my eyes like they were startling. I stared back at him in fascination, amazement, frustration, confusion. “Who-” “I’m Percy,” he said as if it was obvious. “You’re safe now” I couldn’t possibly be alive. Or maybe the hellhounds were just in my imagination. “Strangest dream…” “It’s okay” So it wasn’t a dream. Or Percy was just trying to be reassuring? “Dying” “No,” He sounded positive. “You’re okay. What’s your name?” I sighed, quietly. I wasn’t dead. That meant I could continue my search for J-... I paused before answering. “I’m Thalia.” “Daughter of Zeus.” ----- ----- After three weeks of rest, and a whole lot of ambrosia and nectar, godly food with massive healing abilities, if it doesn't burn demigods to a crisp, I was able to make it to the door of my room, where I got in a motorised wheelchair and rode outside to get some fresh air. Percy and Grover visited me about every three days. I enjoyed their company. Annabeth came every day in her free time. She told me about the camp, and how there were about sixty demigods here. Children of Apollo were good at archery, children of Demeter and Dionysus made the strawberry fields grow. I guessed that a daughter of Zeus would rule the other campers, like always. But I could tell that she was purposefully avoiding some information though. I wondered where Luke was. He didn’t show up at all. One day, after about three months of rest, I finally got out of bed to walk- or more like crawl- around. I fell over a few times but finally got to the door, where I got in this motorised wheelchair, and slowly pushed myself out the door. The hallway was filled with pictures, all girl campers in orange t-shirts, probably demigods. The pictures at the end of the hallway were painted, but more recent black-and-white and colour photos were framed near the exit. I recognised Annabeth in a Yankees baseball cap and the dagger Luke and I gave her when we first met. Doors filled the other space on the walls, with a chalkboard pinned up on it, and the resident’s name chalked up. There was only probably ten rooms in the hallway, but I assumed they were all sickbay, with a larger room at the end for the Apollo healers. When I made it to the end of the hallway, I rolled out the door and out onto a balcony. An elevator to connect all of the levels was next to the door, and another corridor which was probably for the boys. I got into the elevator and rode down to the first-floor balcony. The centaur, Chiron, was waiting on the balcony, staring out onto the basketball court and all of the cabins. I could easily tell which were which. The Zeus cabin was the tall one at the end, and the Hera cabin stood next to it. After that, Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Apollo, and Dionysus. On the other side was Athena, Demeter, Artemis, and Aphrodite. “So, Thalia. What can I do for you?” I looked over at Chiron. His horse half was hidden inside a wheelchair, obviously magic. He was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a brown jacket over that. He looked like a disabled middle school teacher. “Well, I was wondering if you could call Annabeth out of her normal schedule to give me a tour and stuff.” He smiled. “I suppose I could arrange that. I can imagine that you would also want an explanation for… well, everything.” “Yeah.” I did. I got it with the whole half-blood thing, but the camp, and the years I had missed… “Would you like me to go find her? Or would you like to yourself?” “I think I can manage. If you could just give me directions to her class, then I’ll be fine.” He gave me the directions, and I wheeled myself down the wheelchair ramp. ----------- When I arrived at the arts and crafts cabin, Annabeth and the rest of the Athena cabin were just arriving. She was talking to a boy about her age, but when she saw me she quickly ended her conversation and ran over to me. “Hey! You're out of bed!” I nodded “I wanted a tour, and Chiron said I could come get you. Is that okay?” Annabeth smiled. “Of course. Let me just tell Malcolm.” She jogged over that guy again and told him where she would be until she came back. Then she walked over to me and grinned. “Okay, so where first?” “Cabins? Then everything else.” “Okay. Let’s go.” --------- The Zeus cabin was much larger than the other cabins. Hera’s was almost, but not as tall. It took us about 10 minutes to get over to the cabins, me being especially slow in my wheelchair, but we did eventually get there. Annabeth grabbed a key out of her pocket, probably the key for all of the cabins, and then swung open the huge door. Inside, the furniture was covered with so much dust the cabin looked like it had been deserted for a century. The air was musty, but the braziers burned, and a thin layer of dust covered some footsteps leading up to each brazier and then back out the door. The rest of the floor was covered with the base of a large statue of Zeus, that was covered with as much dust as the rest of the floor. The statue looked like a hippy. Zeus stared down at us, like, What are you doing in here? Get out! There was a few sets of beds, with chests at the end, pushed to one corner of the room. Well, it wasn’t really a room. The ceiling was taller than the statue, which was ten feet tall with a long lightning bolt in one hand. As I looked around, I knew I had work to do, or I would sleep outside. “Well, welcome to Cabin 1.” Annabeth looked around covered her mouth. “Big honour.” I looked around and sighed. Big honour. Okay… “Don’t worry,” Annabeth coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. “I’ll help you clean up.” “Okay, sure, thanks. Should we keep going?” “Do you want to clean up now? Inspection is tomorrow, and Silena is a neat freak.” Annabeth coughed again, “So now, tonight, or tomorrow morning?” “Maybe tonight. I feel like touring the rest of the camp now. We can let it sit and air out now for a while. Sorry, bad pun.” “Sure. Let’s go.” She left the door open, and we turned to tour the rest of the camp. ------- The rest of the cabins were not as big, grand, or dusty as the Zeus cabin. Well, maybe the Hera cabin, because I could smell the dust from halfway between the Zeus and Hera cabins. I wasn’t allowed to go into the Hera Cabin. Apparently, the goddess had no demigod children because she was the goddess of marriage, and since she was married to Zeus -- Making Hera my stepmum?? I hope not. But technically that made Annabeth my stepsister -- Okay, this is too complicated. Forget it. As we walked, or in my case rolled past Cabin 2, Annabeth told me some rumors of campers who had gone into the cabin, and seen disturbing visions. Most included a huge flying ship with a dragon masthead, Latin- speaking demigods with purple t-shirts, separated enemies, or something about the 7 heroes… Anyway, Cabin 2 was, well, not scary, but big and bad in a godly sort of way. Apparently there was a huge statue of Hera in there, staring down at the door like the statue in the Zeus Cabin was. The braziers never burned, and no signs of people or footsteps littered the dusty ground. Moving on. The Poseidon cabin was low and grey, with a trident hanging over the door, and a birdbath-fountain thing to the side. Inside, Percy was sitting on his bed doing homework-- wait, we have homework? -- and when he spotted us, he grinned and jogged over. “Hey Thalia, Annabeth. Thalia, you’re out of bed. Better?” Percy was wearing a blue t-shirt and black shorts. He looked like the kind of person who would be skateboarding in a shopping center. Cute, in a troublemaker sort of way. I knew that he and Annabeth would be friends. As Annabeth told me when I was in the Big House- He would either be my best friend, or worst enemy. Let’s go with ‘best friends’. “Yeah, I’m out,” I grinned. “And you? How are you?” “I’m good. Annabeth?” “Me too.” Annabeth looked at Percy then me. She asked me a silent question: You mind if he comes along? Fine with me, I sent back. “Percy, I’m taking Thalia on a tour of the camp. Wanna come?” “Um, well,” Percy looked back to his cabin and turned back to us and pointed over his shoulder. “I need to finish this work. But I might catch up with you later.” “Okay. Let’s go Thalia. Bye Percy.” “Bye Percy.” I turned slowly and followed Annabeth down to Cabin 5, The Ares Cabin. “Bye guys.” Percy walked back to his cabin with a sigh. --------- Annabeth warned me to stay away from Cabin 5. I could see why. Campers walked around the barbed wire fence. Some Ares campers were fixing a chariot, and the two others were lugging an ancient cannon towards the Hephaestus cabin. Only two people were carrying that thing? Okay, I made a mental note never to go near that cabin. Unless… I looked down at my wrist. It was gone? Wasn’t that impossible? I thought it was magically connected to my wrist..? “Annabeth, where’s Aegis?” I knew that she knew all about Aegis. We had found her just after we found it. And her dagger… well, we owed that to him too. “Oh… wait what?” Annabeth stopped and looked at my wrist in alarm. “I don’t know. Maybe it fell off your wrist when you were in the… uh… well…” “What? What?” I stopped moving towards Cabin 7 and looked back at Annabeth. Annabeth’s eyes turned to a dark grey, like a thundercloud, and they started watering faintly. “I promise to explain everything. Everything. But do you want to tour the rest of the cabins first? It’s kind of a long story.” I sighed. I couldn’t wait to know what happened all of these years. But, I guess, we could tour the cabins first, then she could explain. “Sure, Annabeth. Let’s go.” Chapter 2 “Did you ever wonder what happened for the last six years? Or how you survived that night?” Annabeth and I sat in my room in the Big House. I decided to spend the night here instead of in the Zeus cabin. It was still musty, and still very dusty. She sighed, with tears in her light grey eyes again. “Your father turned you into the pine tree on Half-Blood Hill. I saw it myself. One minute you were there, the next…” Annabeth took a deep breath “You were a tree. A tall pine tree standing on top of Half-Blood Hill. We…” She took another shaky breath. “We kept running. Once you turned into a… tree... a faint silver glow, and then... well, yeah.” Annabeth choked down a sob and a shaky breath. I had only seen her like this once before, but this was screaming for Luke to take her back to defend me on Half-Blood Hill. “You were like that ever since. At least until now. G… Grover, L… Lu… Luke… and I, we made it through, and the campers guarded the tree ever si… since. But then, a few months ago, we came back to camp, and your tree was… poisoned.” She spat out the word. Her eyes were still full of tears, but they had turned darker grey, like a thunderstorm, like she was angry. “Chiron was put to blame and dismissed from camp. The Grey sisters gave us a few coordinates, 30, 31, 75, 12. The coordinates for the Sea Of Monsters. Clarisse was given a quest to find the Golden Fleece there, but me, Percy, and Tyson followed snuck out of Camp and followed her, at Hermes’ request. Well, kind of Hermes’ request, and kind of because Grover was being held captive in a wedding dress ready to marry Polyphemus, the Cyclops who lured the satyrs looking for the god of the wild, Pan, to their deaths. The Cyclops, he did this by using the magic of the Golden Fleece, which radiates nature magic like you can’t imagine. Wow.” Annabeth almost showed a smile. “I guess that sounds ridiculous now. But it was very serious at the time. Tyson, who is one of the orphaned Cyclopes from Manhattan, which technically makes him Percy’s brother.” I guess she saw my expression of pure disgust, and quickly added, “A nice one though. He’s currently down at the Cyclops forges down in Poseidon’s palace. He’s not like… any others we’ve met.” Annabeth was right. We both hated Cyclopes. But I could tell from her face that she cared about Tyson, which surprised me. Annabeth’s eyes were clearing of tears and changing back to a normal light grey. “Anyway, we travelled to the Sea Of Monsters. You know the Bermuda Triangle? That’s the mortal name for it nowadays. We made a few stops, one was at one of our half-blood hideouts, remember? But, unfortunately, Tyson found powdered donuts at a Monster Donut shop nearby, attracting a hydra, which got blown up by Clarisse’s cannons, and soon after that ship blew up, and we thought that Tyson was dead. Another was at the magical island of Circe, who tried to make me into a sorceress and turn Percy into a guinea pig.” Annabeth snorted and almost smiled again. “Now that was interesting. Percy made a cute guinea pig. But we got off of that island, and, you know, just happened to pass through the land of the Sirens, and, you know, I tried to kill myself while hearing about my fatal flaw. Luckily for me, Percy is a strong swimmer. So… yeah. We found Polyphemus, Clarisse was there but after she gave Grover away and Polyphemus tied both of them up and was going to marry Clarisse instead of Grover. I used my invisibility cap to sneak around and--” “Wait, what? Invisibility cap? When did you get that?” My eyes felt wide. Annabeth just gave me an inside-joke smile and pulled a New York Yankees cap out of her jacket pocket. “My mother gave it to Chiron to give it to me when I turned twelve. I got it a bit earlier though, when Percy, Grover and I went on our first quest to retrieve Zeus’ master bolt. But that’s another story for another day, week, month, whatever. See, watch this,” Annabeth stuck the cap firmly on her head, and started disappearing fast from her legs up, until her neck, head, and then cap was gone. I saw nothing. Annabeth had completely disappeared. I put out my hand and felt her arm. She was still there alright. She took off her cap and returned to normal sight. “So I used the invisibility cap to sneak around and distract Polyphemus, you know that story of Odysseus and Nobody? I used that trick while percy snuck into the cave and freed Clarisse and Grover, who was out of the wedding dress and going to be eaten at Clarisse and Polyphemus’ wedding. Then Polyphemus captured me, broke a few of my ribs, and then when I woke up again Tyson was back and throwing rocks at Polyphemus. He got the Golden Fleece, and gave it to me to heal my ribs. That thing is powerful. But when Polyphemus threw a rock at our ship and destroyed it, he is still semi-blind and thought we were dead. We escaped on Hippocampi. Clarisse flew back to Long Island while Chiron and his cousins, the Party Ponies, gave us a ride back to camp. The end. Well, not really the end. This is where you come in.” “When we got back from our quest, the campers didn’t really give us a big victory celebration.” Annabeth continued. “Technically we broke the rules by sneaking out without permission. We would have been eaten by the cleaning Harpies or something. When we arrived, we draped the Golden Fleece over your pine tree, and instantly the poison started to fade. Chiron ordered a twenty-four seven guard on the tree until a suitable guard could be found. He told me he found one recently, a dragon named Peleus. He won’t arrive for a few days to weeks though, unfortunately. But anyways, about four nights later I was on guard duty. I was just standing there, watching the tree, staring into the rain outside the magical boundaries. “Suddenly, you just… appeared. I ran back to you to check if you were really there, or if the gods were sending me some sign or message. I sent Malcolm, my second-in-command for the Athena Cabin, who was on guard duty with me, back to the Big House to tell Chiron. Soon, most of the camp was on Half-Blood Hill. Percy ran over to you, and that’s where you woke up. We took you to the Big House, and you woke up again a week later. You remember the rest.” Annabeth paused and took a deep breath, as if waiting for my response. I couldn’t find the words. “This story was more complicated than our adventures, Annabeth. Which brings me onto my next question.” One I had been wondering ever since I woke up. “Where’s Luke?” Annabeth lowered her eyes and sobbed. I could instantly tell that something had gone wrong. I wondered what. But I wouldn’t pester Annabeth if this was a hard subject for her. After a minute or two of crying, Annabeth looked up at me. Her eyes were almost black from anger, but full of tears, which streamed down her face and onto her hands, arms and lap. “Y-you de-deserve to kn-now.” She choked on tears. “L-luke is… He’s…” Annabeth took a few shaky breaths, and buried her head in her hands. “I… I can’t do this.” Annabeth sobbed. She cried for minutes, staining the ends of her hair with tears. They rolled down her hands and arms, and a few fell to the floor. Finally, she took a breath and looked up at me, but then gasped for breath and cried again. Finally, after about ten minutes of me sitting there awkwardly while Annabeth cried her eyes out, she stopped crying. She looked up at me. Her eyes were puffy and her face was covered with rolling tears. “Luke is gone. He was a traitor. He left us to fight us.” ----- I’d like to say I took the news well. I didn’t. I couldn’t believe Luke. After years of us running around as a family, Luke, Annabeth and I were a family. I leave for a few years and he pulls this on us? That night, I slept in the Big House for the last time. I thought about Annabeth’s story, all of her adventures. Was Luke jealous that she went adventuring without him? Had he finally cracked under the pressure of the Olympians? Did he have bad relationships with the campers? I doubted that, since half of the camp lived in the Hermes cabin, which I guessed Luke was in charge of. Too much pressure? Too much responsibility? Finally, I drifted off to sleep. But that meant dreams would find me. So I had the worst nightmare I ever had. I stood on a white cruise ship. With my dyslexia, which Annabeth told me was because my brain was wired to read ancient greek, I managed to make out the banner that hung over a doorway in about ten seconds: PRINCESS ANDROMEDA The door below the banner creaked open slightly. A young man walked out. I almost didn’t recognize him, but his blue eyes and sly grin were unmistakable. “Well!” Luke stepped out of the door and into the sunlight. “Thalia. Thalia Grace,” He said mockingly. I took a step back, narrowly missing a swimming pool, but regained my balance and did my best to stare daggers into him. I rubbed my wrist, feeling for Aegis, but then remembered that it was gone. Luke noticed my hand though, and smiled. “Ah, yes. Aegis.” Luke took the metal chain-linked bracelet out of his pocket. He tossed it to me, and I almost dropped it in the pool, then caught it. “What..?” Luke laughed under his breath softly. “Well, I never told anyone. Annabeth assumed that it was magically attached to your wrist. I was the only one who knew, that when Annabeth and I came back to Half-Blood Hill, it was laying on the ground nearby. I put it in my pocket, waiting for the day I could return it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Well, today’s the day.” “What did you do? Annabeth said you-” “Betrayed her? Betrayed the camp? Trained a jumping scorpion to attack Percy in the woods with no one watching?” Luke laughed. “Thalia, I simply cracked under the pressure of the gods. They use us. They use us for their own stupid reasons, give us quests for their useless problems. Well, I was offered a quest when I turned seventeen, from Hermes.” I noticed he didn’t say dad. “It was to steal a Golden Apple from the tree at the Garden of Hesperides. At first I was honoured.” Luke scoffed. “The fool I was. Then I realized, Hercules,” Luke rolled his blue eyes, “had done that. I still went, though. And this,” Luke pointed to an ugly scar below his eye. I hadn’t notices it until now. Now I couldn’t look away. “Luke…” My voice cracked. Luke looked away. “The dragon guarding the tree. I managed to cut off it’s claw, which I stored in the attic of the Big House.” When he looked back, he was angry. “When I came back, the other campers treated me with pity, disrespect that I had failed my quest, almost ignoring me altogether. That was the last straw.” Luke looked at me, like he expected me to feel bad for him. Although I hated him now for abandoning Annabeth and Camp Half-Blood, I did feel bad for him. I guess my face was expressionless in thought, because Luke scowled and looked away. “I pledged my service to Kronos.” “Luke… no...” I was dangerously close from breaking down into tears. And that was not like me at all. “My first task from Kronos,” Luke continued, “Was to steal both the Helm of Darkness from Hades and the Master Bolt from Zeus. That was the easy part. You know me. The hard part was keeping it. Zeus sent out Artemis, Athena and Ares to search for it, and Ares found me and fought me. This,” Luke rolled up his sleeve, and a long faded scar snaked down his arm. Then he shrugged. “All I had to do was tell him there would be a full-scale war. Obviously, the god of war couldn’t disagree, but he took both symbols of power. Originally, I was worried that he would give them back to Zeus and Hades, but he didn’t disappoint. Until Percy Jackson,” He spat, “Intervened.” “He took back the Master Bolt and the Helm of Darkness from Ares. He beat Ares. He returned the stolen symbols of power. Kronos plagued me with nightmares for weeks. I swore never to fail him again. I guess,” Luke sighed, “Now, I’m dead for failing to kill Percy Jackson or steal the Golden Fleece.” “Luke… how could you? I mean… you abandoned Annabeth, you abandoned Camp-Half Blood, your siblings, me…” “Goodbye, Thalia. Sweet dreams.” -------- I woke up with a start, breathing hard. My hand was still clutching the metal bracelet, and my eyes were still dangerously close to tearing up. I sat up slowly and stretched. I strapped Aegis on my wrist, and it attached instantly. Then I lay there for hours, thinking about what my former best friend had said. Chapter 3 I woke to the sound of thunder. Then I remembered where I was. It was always thundering in Cabin One. Annabeth and I fixed up a bed for me just behind a brazier a few days ago. I had stuck a few pictures of Annabeth, Luke and I, travelling around before we came to camp, on my wall. Even though I despised him now, it seemed only fair that he was included on my wall, along with the fact that he was my crush (and technically boyfriend? I had kissed him once…) all the time we were wandering around America as homeless demigods. I packed all my belongings, then headed out the door without looking back once, and headed to Half-Blood Hill. Today was the last day of camp. For now. Well, for me I supposed it would be sooner than the other campers. This would be the third time I had left camp, one to see how much the world had changed in six years, one to buy some supplies, which ended badly after I decided to buy an iphone for emergencies. After testing it out once, pretty much every monster in the shopping center was given a simultaneous message of, ‘DEMIGODS IN THE APPLE STORE’, and our shopping trip was cut short. For the school year, I had decided to go to a boarding school with Annabeth for the school year, and according to Chiron, there was a whole bunch of complications about my birthday and stuff. Anyway, we had arranged to arrive a few days before school started, so we could get school supplies, some normal clothes, etc., because all I owned was Aegis and my spear, some Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, shorts and toiletries from the camp store, the pictures, and the clothes I arrived in that were ripped up and partially burned. Argus, the thousand-eyed camp security guard, drove us down to Brooklyn to our school. It actually looked okay, for a school. It wasn’t a brick building with smiling geeks streaming out of yellow school busses and into the school an hour or two before class started. For one thing, it was an all-girls school. An iron gate surrounded the property, and the school itself was made of grey stones mixed with wood. The kids wore a mix of punk-rock, geek and casual clothes. Ivy grew up and down the walls, but I could see inside was filled with posters and crazy teachers. Not the perfect, amazing punk-rock school for ADHD and dyslexic demigods, but better than some others. After we put away our few belongings, Annabeth pulled out a stack of mortal money and announced that we would be shopping. But I knew that Annabeth wouldn’t be shopping for first-rate Aphrodite clothes, and believe me, the Aphrodite kids are crazy when it comes to fashion. Also, our two small separate room were full of blank stone walls and white bedsheets, so we needed some decorations. Fortunately, Annabeth knew where to shop. --------- That night, I dreamed about my mother. The day before, I had bought enough clothes to last me the whole term, some posters of Green Day to hang up all around my room, a few rock CDs and a player, and finally some black makeup to scare students and intimidate classmates. As for school supplies, Annabeth knew me well enough to buy stationery and notepads that were not pink or sparkly, thank the gods. We had cheeseburgers for lunch, my request and favourite. I just hoped the cafeteria served them. Also, fortunately, we didn’t use computers, so not many monsters would attack us, but we were close enough to camp to go back there if we were in trouble. Anyway, back to my dreams. As I sunk into the darkness of sleep, I wondered about what I would dream about. I stood on a balcony. With a start, I realized that this was my mother’s house. As I listened, I could hear shouts of, “THALIA? THALIA!”, coming from inside the house. This was the morning after I ran away. Then the door opened, and she came outside. She walked down the steps, and then stared and pointed accusingly at the sky. “ZEUS? HOW COULD YOU?” she sobbed. “YOU TOOK NOT ONE BUT TWO OF MY CHILDREN!” The sky rumbled, and Zeus appeared in front of her. “Beryl, I didn’t take Thalia. She ran away.” “NO!” She shook with anger. “You took her. Your ideas took her, Your monsters took her. You and your demigod children caused me nothing but trouble. I’M DONE!” She ran inside and slammed the door, crying all the way. Zeus sighed, then disappeared. Then the scene changed. I was sitting in the passenger seat of my mother’s car. I could hear her cursing in Ancient Greek, though that couldn’t have been possible. She didn’t know Greek. Her eyes turned to me, and I could tell that she was drunk. She had the same look in her eyes the same day Hera took my little brother. Suddenly she screamed, and as her car ran into a truck, and I was taken to another scene. I was sitting on a bench, holding a newspaper. The title and pictures screamed the ugly truth in my face. “BERYL GRACE, MOTHER OF TWO, ACTRESS, KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT.” ---------- My scene changed once again. Even though I hated my mother, for giving my brother to a goddess, for pestering my dad for years, for screaming at me that the monsters were my fault, my eyes still had tears in them. I hated myself for that, how I felt bad for people that treated me unfairly if I had one good experience with them. I remembered where I was instantly. It was a few years after Luke and I found Annabeth, and we were at one of our half-blood hideouts, much after midnight. The sound of a hunting call echoed through the woods, and Luke, who was on guard duty, looked out of the tent flap for just a second to check what was going on. A wolf growled in the forest nearby, but didn’t attack. Luke hesitated, as if wondering if he should kill it, and two more appeared. Then another one. Three more. Soon, a whole pack was surrounding our camp. Luke went back inside the camp, and woke me -the me from this timeline, sleeping in the tent- and Annabeth up. We jumped out of the tent, Annabeth with dagger, Luke with sword, and me with sword and Aegis, ready to attack. The first wolf, who was probably the leader, stalked around, then pounced on Luke. Before it could reach him, a silver arrow hit the wolf in the neck, and it disintegrated. Half the wolves turned on the shooter, but the other half pounced on us. Annabeth got a scrape on her arm, but stabbed it in the stomach, and advanced on the next, respectable for a seven-year old who had only been killing monsters for a few months with only a dagger. Luke and I took on the other wolves, stab, roll, deflect, stab. I saw the archer shooting wolves every few seconds, and more huntresses appeared out of the forest, shooting down wolves faster than they could advance. Finally all of the wolves were dead, and not too many injuries. The first huntress pulled off her hood to reveal a silver circlet like a tiara and a proud face that made her look like a princess. Me- I mean Thalia from the past- stepped up to the girl. “Hi. Who are you?” The girl studied younger Thalia with interest, like she was choosing a t-shirt to buy. Then she turned back to the other girls. “Yanna, Ellia, Harriet, Rachel, Poppy, Jasmine; continue to follow the trail. Everyone else, set up camp, we will rest here for now.” She turned back to younger me. “We are the Hunters of Artemis. We travel around the country, hunting down monsters at Artemis’ request. I am Zoë Nightshade, and these are,” Zoë pointed back at some of the other huntresses. “Phoebe, my second in command. Naomi, Celyn, Tala, Laurel, Amie, Shonah, Ruth, Louie, Abe, Caiden, Holly. Everyone else just left.” Luke stepped forward, and said, “I’m Luke, son of Hermes, and this is Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and Annabeth, daughter of Athena.” A few of the girls scowled, and one of them scoffed. “Boys.”, I read her lips. Phoebe, the second in command, walked over to us, and shook younger me’s hand. “Nice to meet you,” she smiled. Then she leaned closer to me. “I apologize if you are not welcome with some of the huntresses. Very rarely are males allowed to witness the hunt.” Luke looked away. He turned and walked back to the camp to tidy it up, or something. Zoë motioned for old us to come into a tent. I remember wondering how it had gotten there so fast. As Annabeth and (old) I walked in the door, (dreaming) I followed them. As we took a seat, Zoë looked at Annabeth, and smiled. “We are always looking for younger talent. And Thalia,” Zoë looked at old me. “I don’t know why thee travel with males, but thou are both welcome to join the Hunt.” Annabeth looked at Zoë. “Thee?” Thalia looked at Zoë. “How old are you? Not to be rude or anything, but nobody uses thee, thy, thou, etcetera anymore. Just you.” “Just me… What?” Zoë looked confused, then annoyed. She stamped her foot. “I hate this language! It changes too often. But, yes, Annabeth. I am old. We all are, in the Hunt.” “H-how?” Now Annabeth looked confused. “What could… immortality?” Her eyes widened. She definitely wanted to join the Hunt now. Zoë nodded. “Do you wish to join?” Younger me, who had been staring at Zoë, finally spoke up. “Wait- wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Immortality? What are the benefits of joining the Hunt?” Zoë looked pleased. Then she passed Thalia- younger me- a brochure. On the front of the brochure there was some black-and-white pictures of girls with bows and arrows, some of them I could recognise from the crowd. There were a bunch of words, and a few of the slogans said things like, 'A boy free tomorrow!', or, 'Live on forever!'. I looked up at Zoë, impressed. It looked cool, and I wanted to join up. "Immortality. Nice. But what do you do?" Zoë shrugged. "We follow directions from Artemis, and travel around the country hunting down the most fierce monsters. At the moment we are following the wolves that attacked you." Annabeth was still looking at Zoë, wide eyed in shock. "What do we have to do to join?" "Just say this," Zoë looked pleased. "I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis." Annabeth looked at me, as if asking permission. "I.. I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis." Zoë smiled. "I turn my back on the company of men and-" "Hang on. Whoa, whoa. Turn my back on the company of men?" Younger me looked shocked now. "Annabeth, if you do this, we have to leave Luke." "What? No!" Annabeth cried. I knew that she would never leave Luke. She stared at Zoë in disgust, momentarily, but then remembered that she wanted Zoë as a friend and hid the scowl. Zoë sighed. "Unfortunate. You could have been a wonderful huntress, Annabeth." She turned to me. "Someday Luke will abandon you. It always happens with men, and Luke is no exception. They promise to treat you as equals. They do for a while, but then they abandon you for another cause." "Luke would never leave us. We are family, and we swore not to leave us like our families left us." I rose from my seat. "Goodbye, Zoë." I turned and walked out the door, Annabeth trailing behind, waving goodbye to Zoë one last time. Then dreaming me watched, as the hunters packed up their camp and continued the trail. But I was sure of one thing, why I dreamed of this night. Zoë was right. Luke had abandoned us. Chapter 4 School was boring. I was almost relieved to receive the distress call from Grover. Well, it wasn't like I was missing out on a lot of school, it was the Friday before winter break, but we still had some tests to finish up for the end-of-year. Percy's mom picked us up after school and drove us up to Maine. I hadn't seen Percy in a few months, but we were all a bit too nervous to talk. Maybe we were just staying silent to hear Mrs Jackson talk about every story of Percy as a kid. Or maybe we thought that we couldn't hear each other over the snow pelting down outside. I wiped the fog off the window and looked out, not like I could see anything but snow. After a few more minutes, I wiped the window again, and I could just see the outline of a black building. I couldn't believe that Mrs Jackson could still drive in this weather. I couldn't wait until I got my drivers licence in a few years- if I ever found out how old I was. Was I the same age as I was six years ago, or was I now eighteen? "Oh yeah, this'll be fun." I sighed. As we arrived at the doors of the school, the snow had died down a bit and I could see the school more properly. I couldn't believe that this was where Grover had found a demigod here. Or maybe he found a monster and alerted us to come kill it. Grover wasn't much of a fighter. All satyrs weren't really, more like nature freaks with reed pipes and t-shirts saying a bunch of things like "Protect the Wild," or "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!" all of which I found lame. Not that I disliked satyrs, Grover was cool and I was all in for saving nature, but it just wasn't my style. The school, Westover Hall, looked like a castle. A lava moat and a dragon on a chain would have made it perfect for a movie. The building was made of black bricks, with towers and iron bars across the windows. It was on a cliff with a huge frozen forest on one side and the ocean on the other. It looked epic. "Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Mrs Jackson asked. She was really nice. You know those people who could walk into a room and literally made the whole place feel better? She was one of those people. No wonder she had gotten the attention of a god. Apparently she worked at a candy shop until recently, but quit because she always wanted to write a novel, and (cough) turned her idiot (cough) ex-husband to stone (cough) with medusa’s head (cough). Percy said that she always would bring him home blue lollipops and bake all different types of blue food. That was also cool, the fact that she would go out of her way just to make her troubled son happy. That and she never raised her voice, at any of Percy's mistakes. "No thanks, Mom. I don't know how long this will take. We'll be okay." Percy was blushing slightly, but if he was actually embarrassed that his mom drove us here, or about the stories she told us, he had no reason to. None of us could drive, and some of the trains were down today, so we couldn't get here. And also, the stories were nothing compared to Annabeth and mine. "But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy." Mrs Jackson really did sound worried. I was going to say something about going to a shopping mall or something, but Annabeth stepped in first. "It's okay, Mrs Jackson. We'll keep him out of trouble." Annabeth smiled, and Mrs Jackson looked a bit more relaxed. Annabeth is apparently the most level-headed, responsible demigod in all of existence in the eyes of Mrs Jackson. Ha. She should have seen her when we were running around with Luke. She's made some pretty quick decisions, and not all of them great. But most of the time, compared to the Ares kids or Percy, she was pretty responsible. And she's saved both of us a few more times than we would like to admit. "All right, dears, do you have everything you need?" "Yes Mrs Jackson," I smiled. "Thanks for the ride." "Extra sweaters? You have my cell phone number?" Percy sighed. "Mom-" "Your ambrosia and nectar, Percy? And a golden drachma in case you need to contact camp?" "Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys." Percy's mom looked a bit hurt, but Percy was blushing pretty hard now. Or maybe that was because he had opened the door and the ice was making us freeze. Annabeth and me followed him out the door, and Annabeth thanked Mrs Jackson one more time for the ride, and reassured her that Percy would be fine. We watched the car drive back the way we came, while we were pelted by ice and snow. I really wished I had worn warmer clothes, because my jacket was really ripped up. As the car took a left turn, I looked over at Percy. "Your mom is so cool, Percy." "Yeah, she's pretty okay. What about you? You ever got in touch with your mom?” As soon as Percy said that, he cringed like he should have left that subject alone. And he should have. I glared at him. “If that was any of your business, Percy-” “We’d better get inside,” Annabeth said, and gently put her hand on my arm. “Grover will be waiting.” I gave Percy another look for good riddance, then looked up at the castle. I shivered, because the snow felt like it was getting colder every second. I wondered if Boreas, god of the North Winds, was playing his icy tricks on me again. The last time that happened, I was not a happy camper. “You’re right. I wonder what he found here that made him send the distress call.” “Nothing good,” Percy said with a sigh. ----- As I pushed open the huge oak doors of Westover Hall, Percy stared at the weapons hanging from the walls. “Whoa.” I’d never been to a military school before, and this place looked like a armory for monsters. Heaps of guns, swords, axes, pretty much any type of weapon you could name was on a wall or in a display cabinet. The rest of the space was lined with flags or medals, none of which seemed too friendly either. I rubbed Aegis. The weapons sort of gave it away, but the air smelled like monsters. A fight was going to happen. “I wonder where-” Annabeth stopped when the doors slammed shut at my back. Probably the wind, but I could feel a presence so close I was itching to look back. “Oo-kay,” Percy muttered. “Guess we’ll stay a while.” “Come on,” I said, and pointed to a column of marble. “Put out stuff here.” We dropped our stuff behind it, just in case we had to stay the night. I could hear music from down the hall. Grover had mentioned that today was the last day of school, and there was a dance in the gym. “This way.” As I turned, I heard footsteps. A man and a woman, both in black-and-red military style uniforms walked out of a hallway. The guy was clean-shaven and the woman had a moustache that was even visible in the dim light. They walked standing up straight, no slouching or moving except for their feet, like robots. “Well? What are you doing here?” The woman stared in our faces. The man’s eyes lit up faintly, then narrowed like he was excited to see us, in a bad way. “Um…” Percy and Annabeth looked kind of nervous. Percy kept glancing from the man to the woman, like he couldn’t decide which gender they were. Annabeth’s eyes were thunderstorm black. Percy finally settled on the woman. “Ma’am, we’re just-” “Ha!” The man interrupted, making all of us jump. “Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be eee-jected!” He had a french accent. The emphasis on the last word was a bit unnecessary, and the J was pronounced like the J in Jacques. His eyes were two different colours, brown and blue. I stepped forwards and called on the mist- a trick I had learned from Chiron. I snapped my fingers very loud, and the mist rolled out in sheets, making the air warmer and the banners on the walls rustle. “Oh, but we’re not visitors, sir. We go to school here. You remember: I’m Thalia. And this is Annabeth and Percy. We’re in the eighth grade.” The male teacher’s eyes narrowed. I could tell he didn’t believe my trick. Was he our monster? Should I fight him here and now? I needed more proof. I don’t just go swinging my spear at random mortals. If he was just a regular teacher here but could see through the mist, we would have a lot of explaining to do. Finally, he looked at the other teacher. “Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?” Percy looked like he was going to burst out laughing. A teacher names Ms. Got Chalk? The woman blinked, her eyes cloudy. “I- yes. I believe I do, sir.” She looked at us each with a stern look in her eyes. “Annabeth. Thalia. Percy. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?” I tried to think of an answer, but suddenly Grover burst down the hallway grinning. “You made it! You-” He noticed the teachers. “Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk! Dr. Thorn! I, uh-” “What is it, Mr. Underwood? What do you mean, they made it?” It happened so fast I thought I imagined it, but his eyes changed colours from blue and brown to green and gray, but then back to blue and brown. I could tell he knew something was different about Grover, or at least hated him. “These students live here.” Grover looked nervous. “Yes, sir. Yes, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I’m so glad they made… the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!” Dr. Thorn looked like he wanted to kill us, or at least Grover. Mrs. Gottschalk, with a dreamy expression on her face, said, “Yes, the punch is excellent.” I wondered if it was a leftover reaction from my mist trick. “Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!” Percy, Annabeth, Grover and I left hastily, bowing and saluting and “Yes, sir; yes ma’am.” Then we practically tripped over each other walking down the hall. Grover’s hoof was visible for a split second, and Dr. Thorn’s expression showed that we had just confirmed his curiosity of what Grover was. But he kept his mouth shut. As we walked, Percy came up to me and asked, “How did you do that finger-snap thing?” “You mean the mist?” I frowned. “Hasn’t Chiron shown you how to do that yet?” Percy’s brow furrowed, but we kept walking. When we arrived at a sign that said ‘MGY’ or probably ‘GYM’, Grover stopped. “That was close! Thank the gods you got here!” Annabeth and I hugged him. Percy high-fived him. Grover looked about what he always did, with a red cap to cover his horns and baggy jeans with sneakers to cover his hooves and furry legs. He wore a black t-shirt that read, ‘WESTOVER HALL: GRUNT’. What that meant, I had no idea. “So, what’s the emergency?” Percy asked. Grover took a deep breath. “I found… two.” “Two half-bloods?” I asked. “Here?” Grover nodded warily. Finding just one half blood was rare. But this year, things were getting desperate. Satyrs as seekers had flooded to different schools by the hunters to find new campers. Because of Luke’s recruiting, many of the campers from Camp Half-Blood had left to fight for him. So now we needed them more than ever. Two… that was an incredibly lucky find. “A brother and a sister,” Grover reported. “Ten and twelve. I don’t know their parentage, but they’re strong. We’re running out of time, though. I need help.” “Monsters?” I wondered. “One. He suspects.” He looked back to the hallway like he was checking if there was anyone there, and lowered his voice. “I don’t think he’s positive yet, but this is the last day of term. I’m sure he won’t let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance! Every time I try to get close to them, he’s always there, blocking me. I don’t know what to do!” He looked at me desperately. I tried not to look to pleased. But I had seniority, being the most experienced fighter and daughter of Zeus. “Right,” I said, trying to file all of the information into my brain. “These Half-Bloods are at the dance?” Grover nodded. “Then... let’s dance. Who’s the monster?” “Oh…” Grover looked behind him again, back to the hallway. “You just met him. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn.” I knew it. He saw through the mist, and now he knew we were there to pick the kids up. He knew for certain that these kids were half-bloods. I wondered what type of monster he was. Something to do with thorns. “Let’s be quick then,” I said, and pushed open the door to the gym. Quotes from Percy Jackson Percy Jackson'' and The Sea of Monsters'' “Percy, wait!” - Chiron “It’s true,” “I can’t believe…” - Grover Underwood “She needs nectar and ambrosia." "Come on! What’s wrong with you people? Let’s get her to the Big House.” ''- Percy Jackson'' “Who-”- Thalia Grace “I’m Percy,” “You’re safe now” ''- Percy Jackson'' “Strangest dream…” - Thalia “It’s okay” ''- Percy'' “Dying” - Thalia “No,” “You’re okay. What’s your name?” ''- Percy'' “I’m Thalia.” - Thalia “Daughter of Zeus.” - Thalia Percy Jackson'' and The Titans Curse'' Edit Characters Main Characters * Thalia Grace * Annabeth Chase Minor Characters * Percy Jackson * Chiron * Grover Underwood * Luke Castellan * Zeus * Zoë Nightshade Mentioned * Tyson * Silena Beauregard * Malcolm Pace * Demeter * Athena * Clarisse La Rue * Polyphemus Book 2? I really enjoy writing stories for people, especially about the world of Percy Jackson. Here are some more people I could do stories on; # Nico Di Angelo # Annabeth Chase # Percy Jackson # Grover Underwood # Luke Castellian # Rachel Elizabeth Dare # Tyson # Clarisse La Rue # Zoë Nightshade # Jason Grace # Piper McLean # Leo Valdez # Frank Zhang # Hazel Levesque # Reyna Ramírez-Arellano # Octavian # Coach Hedge # Calypso # Luke Jackson # Zoë Charlie Jackson # Bianca Silena Jackson # Bob Damasen Jackson